Parking argument leads to armed confrontation outside club

A dispute about parking at a Near North Side nightclub early Friday ended with security guards detaining a man who they said threatened them with a gun.

The guards told police that they asked Van M. Johnson, 30, to move his Chevrolet Camaro out of the valet parking lot in the 800 block of North Orleans Street. Johnson argued, police said, and the guards eventually told the Near West Side man that he wouldn’t be allowed back inside the nightclub but that he still needed to move the car.

At that point, prosecutors said, Johnson retrieved a revolver from the car’s glove box and threatened the security guards. When the guards drew their own weapons, Johnson complied and was detained until police arrived at around 2:25 a.m., his arrest report said. Officers recovered a .32-caliber revolver loaded with four live rounds from his car.

Johnson, of the 2200 block of West Monroe Street, was charged with three felony counts of aggravated assault on a peace officer with a weapon, as well as a single felony count of aggravated unauthorized use of a weapon.